The Prisoner - 40th Anniversary Collector’s Edition


	Video: 1.33:1

	Anamorphic: No

	Audio: English (Dolby Digital 2.0)

	Subtitles: None

	Runtime: 884 minutes

	Rating: NR

	Released: August 1st 2006

	Production Year: 1967

	Director: Various

	Released by: A&E Home Video

	Region: 1 NTSC


	New 60-page Limited Edition series companion guide, fully illustrated with extensive episode guides and complete with liner notes detailing the many hidden mysteries behind the series

	Deluxe fold-out map of The Village

	Ultra-rare original footage of the 1966 location shooting, accompanied by commentary with Bernie Williams

	Bonus program: "The Prisoner Video Companion"

	Rare, alternate version of the episode "The Chimes of Big Ben"

	Rarely seen "Foreign File Cabinet" footage

	Rarely seen "textless" intro & outro

	Original broadcast trailers

	Original series promotional trailer

	Gallery of original production and promotional materials

	Production stills galleries

	Interactive map of the Village

	Prisoner trivia


	The Prisoner - 40th Anniversary Collector’s Edition By Chris Hughes

Introduction & Episodes 1 - 7 | Episodes 8 - 17 & Features

Introduction, Background & Context
From its outset, television has been looked down upon as a populist form with little inherent artistic value. Maligned as the “boob tube” and “idiot box,” the small screen has produced more than its share of genuinely worthless content. But television programming is a volume game and amidst the vast amount of effluvia, from time to time a genuine work of art emerges. The Prisoner is one of the earliest and best examples of a program that realizes television’s potential as a legitimate platform for pure creative expression.

The premise of the show is spelled out in the opening credits of each episode: a highly placed, unnamed spy storms into his superior’s office and slams down a resignation letter. He then drives home and packs his bags for what we presume is a vacation, but before he can finish a hearse pulls up and a man dressed as an undertaker pumps sleeping gas into the room. An indeterminate amount of time passes before the spy, rendered unconscious by the gas, comes to in what appears to be his apartment. But something’s off. The room isn’t quite the same. He goes to the window and draws up the shades to reveal, not his familiar London skyline but a little resort town nestled between steep mountains and the ocean. This is The Village and our hero will come to discover that it is a kind of open holding facility where spies and highly placed government officials are imprisoned and subjected to interrogation. No one in the village has a name. Each “citizen” is assigned a number and the entire operation is overseen by a figure known as Number Two. Our hero is informed that he will now be known as Number Six, to which he responds with The Prisoner’s most emblematic tag line: “I am not a number! I am a free man!” From this point forward Number Six’s mission is clear. He must discover the identity of his jailers – it is unclear if The Village is run by the British or by some competing, hostile nation – protect the secret motivation behind his resignation, and escape at all costs.

Created in 1967, The Prisoner was conceived, written and produced by star Patrick McGoohan and co-creator George Markstein. Markstein and McGoohan had planned the show as a six-episode mini-series but the BBC successfully negotiated a contract for 17 installments. Like Number Six, McGoohan had himself suddenly resigned from the highly successful program Danger Man (known as Secret Agent in the US), in which he played a spy named John Drake, to work on The Prisoner. One of the great mysteries of the show is if Number Six was supposed to be McGoohan’s John Drake character from Danger Man. McGoohan has repeatedly stated that they’re not the same character, but Markstein contradicts him and dialogue in the show seems to suggest continuity between Danger Man and The Prisoner.

The basic dramatic underpinnings of each show are deceptively simplistic. Number Six matches wits with his jailers as he tries every method available to escape The Village. Meanwhile, Number Two, who is played by a different actor in nearly every episode, employs increasingly bizarre, invasive and baroque methods for prying information out of Number Six. Within this framework a psychological drama plays out not only within each show but also across the entire series. Questions of identity and integrity, of the rule of authority and rebellion, of sanity and dementia are explored on both a surface and a symbolic level. The Prisoner is rife with metaphor, ironic subtext and questions … lots and lots of questions. The genius of The Prisoner is that it asks viewers to connect the dots and answer those questions on his/her own terms, making it one of the most challenging and rewarding programs ever made.

Though no two viewers interpret the show in exactly the same way, it is valuable to look at some of the overarching themes of the show. In a sense, Markstein and McGoohan took the James Bond format and turned it inside out. Like Bond, Number Six is a suave and skilled operative. He’s a man of action who is used to being in control of every situation. But in The Village, Number Six is stripped of all but his wits and his mitts. Everything from the food he eats to the people he encounters and the clothes he wears are controlled by Number Two--and Number Two is nothing more than the top henchman of the shadowy Number One who, in an inversion of the Bond formula, is never identified or seen on screen. In another inversion, Number Two shows Number Six a comprehensive dossier that details everything that can be known about the former agent, short of the reason he resigned.

The Village’s caretakers operate from a space-age control room where they command a wide array of high-tech gadgets to surveil the movements of every villager and exert iron-fisted control over nearly every event. Chief in their arsenal is the surreal guardian “Rover” – a ghostly white bubble that patrols the village and can immobilize or kill anyone who gets out of line or strays out of designated areas. Number Six can’t whip a laser out of his boot, scream off in a souped-up sports car or get the drop on his adversary after the villain unwisely reveals his plan. Rather, all the tools are in the hands of the enemy and Number Six is forced to use unconventional methods to try and get the upper hand.

The Village is the ultimate paranoid fantasy and a strong metaphor for the idealized totalitarian society. Almost everyone in The Village is anonymous, leading one to wonder who are the jailers and who the jailed. Is The Village run by “us” or by “them”? Is Number Six a victim of The Village’s overlords or is he on a mission to subvert it from within? Where in the world is The Village? Why are all of these people imprisoned here? Is there any chance for escape, and upon escaping, will Number Six be able to retain his individuality in “normal” society? There are no easy answers in The Prisoner, but searching for them is endlessly rewarding. Clues are everywhere; it’s up to you to put them together.

The Episodes:

A note on the order – There has never been a firmly established order for the 17 episodes. Only one thing is clear: the first episode is Arrival and the final two episodes are Once Upon A Time and Fall Out. The order of all the other shows is ambiguous, as each show is a self-contained adventure with very few references to events from the other installments. A&E presents the programs in an order established by fans who have closely observed dialogue, plot and internal timelines as opposed to using the production or broadcast order. This sequence is probably the most satisfying arrangement of episodes because the severity of the tactics used by Number Two and the control Number Six commands over events grow slowly from Arrival through Fall Out.

Spoilers - be aware that there are some spoilers in the following episode guide but none that reveal critical plot points or degrade the experience of watching the shows.

Episode 1: Arrival


In the premier episode we’re introduced to all the elements of the show. We meet Number Six and Number Two, get a quick geography lesson on important Village locations and meet the cosmopolitan yet oddly sedate citizens. The Village looks like a generic seaside resort, its stores are stocked with Village-branded products, everyone wears the same style clothes but there’s a palpable sense of mistrust and fear. Everything in The Village seems scripted and staged but no one is sure who’s running the show.

Episode 2: Free for All


It’s election time in The Village, but how can there be free and open elections in a totalitarian state? In a story that remains surprisingly relevant, Free For All finds Number Six coerced into becoming a candidate in what he thinks is a mock election, running against Number Two for The Village’s top post. Along the way we get an examination of propaganda techniques, the emptiness of political rhetoric, the role of the press in shaping public opinion and the notion that democracy alone doesn’t make a society free.

Episode 3: Dance of the Dead


The gloves really come off in Dance of the Dead as Number Six is drugged and subjected to a torturous interrogation machine each night. Between sessions, Six encounters a fellow spy whom he knew before being brought to The Village and who may hold the key to escape. The action takes place against a surreal backdrop as the villagers throw a carnival and every citizen except Number Six dons an assigned costume. From the role of the justice system within a totalitarian society to the place, both physical and mental, of the individual within it, Dance of the Dead represents a significant ramping up of the attack on Number Six’s sense of identity.

Episode 4: Checkmate


The central mystery of The Prisoner is trying to figure out who are the jailers and who the jailed, who are the pawns and who are the kings and queens. Checkmate takes this issue on when a villager becomes a rogue element and needs to be reprogrammed. Studying the man closely, Number Six devises a methodology that he thinks will expose the jailers. Using it, he enlists several other villagers in an escape bid. But how do you conspire against a society that is itself rooted in conspiracy?

Episode 5: The Chimes of Big Ben


If Dance of the Dead showed that the rulers of The Village were willing to go to extreme mental and physical ends, The Chimes of Big Ben shows the extent of their power and influence. Number Six reluctantly enlists the aid of a recently arrived female Soviet agent and together they concoct a plan. As part of a village art show, Number Six builds an expressionist sculpture out of wood and rope that he calls “Escape.” The title is more than symbolic. After the show he spirits the sculpture away to the beach where he reconfigures it as a crude sailboat and the two take to the open water. Obviously Number Six will wind up back in the village before the episode is over, but the journey he takes and the people he encounters will reveal exactly how deep and wide the conspiracy runs.

Episode 6: A, B, and C


Up until this point the various Number Twos have been confident and self-assured but A, B and C presents a turning point. The new Number Two is obviously under a lot of stress. We get the impression that his boss (Number One?) is becoming impatient. Anxious to please, Number Two orders drastic measures. In the show’s most Jungian plot, Number Six is drugged and connected to a machine that is able to access his deepest unconscious mind. Using images and sound, Number Two is able to suggest situations, scenarios and people that are familiar to Number Six in the hope that his dreaming mind will drop its guard and reveal the secret of his resignation. At first it seems to be working, but is it possible that Number Six is in complete control of even the innermost reaches of his mind?

Episode 7: The General


In another first for the series, the same Number Two returns for another go at our hero. This time, a shadowy figure known as The General has developed a speed teaching process that’s being used on all the villagers. A brief, hypnotic television broadcast fills their heads with facts and dates--but is that all the machine is doing? When Number Six discovers evidence of The General’s own rebellion, he goes undercover to try and put an end to the community-wide mind-control experiment. This episode touches on the difference between rote and experiential learning, on the potentially destructive role of television in society and the idea of the education system being used to support a political agenda.

Introduction & Episodes 1 - 7 | Episodes 8 - 17 & Features